What is the STAR pattern

What this lesson covers

This lesson breaks down the STAR technique used to answer behavioural interview questions: situation, task, action and result. For the situation, the interviewer wants the background and how the challenge reached the candidate. Accepting an assigned challenge, asking for one, or designing a challenge for oneself show different levels of a competency called achievement orientation, so this context matters, along with what the candidate was thinking and feeling at the time. The task describes the nature of the challenge: its breadth, complexity, criticality and whether it affected the unit, the industry or beyond. Knowing the scope and timeline also lets the interviewer ask follow-up questions about different milestones. The action is where the candidate must describe what they personally did. Others who helped can be named with their roles, but the interviewer is hiring the individual and needs to see the behaviours that person displayed. The result covers outcomes and benefits to the company. The video stresses that an unsuccessful outcome can still show strong competencies if the challenge was hard and significant progress was made. Told this way, from the candidate's own perspective, a STAR answer gives the interviewer data to match against the job's competencies and some predictive value for future performance.

• STAR stands for situation, task, action and result
• How a challenge came to you, assigned, requested or self-designed, signals your level of achievement orientation
• Describe the breadth, complexity and criticality of the task
• Focus the action on what you did, not what the team did
• Results matter even when the final goal was not reached